Brian Catalucci

Apple will report earnings after Tuesday’s close, and I expect the stock to get short-squeezed higher no matter what the news. This has already occurred in a few of the highly manipulated "lunatic stocks" held mainly by institutions, including Google, Netflix and Facebook.  With regard to AAPL, my longstanding target for the stock, currently trading for around 129.25, is 144.26, but the bullish outlook comes with a warning. For further details and a precise technical look at AAPL’s vital signs ahead of the earnings announcement, check out this five-minute recording. It was prepared Friday afternoon with the stock rebounding from a weak opening that would have fooled bulls and bears. My recent commentary on Apple has emphasized the negatives, since the stock has shown no net price gain since February. Does this suggest that Apple, corporately speaking, has lost its mojo? Although it's too early to say, AAPL's charts suggest that a cautionary outlook is warranted. The $10 selloff that occurred between June 24 and July 9 generated the first bearish impulse leg we've seen on the daily chart since 2012. The earlier decline was part of a bear market that saw the stock fall by 44%.  For the moment, the good news is that the technical damage done by the recent weakness would be negated by a move above May's record high at 134.54. That is a mere $5 above Friday's settlement price --  a distance that could easily be covered by week's end if Tuesday's earnings announcement catalyzes even a moderate short squeeze.  Were that to occur, the 144.26 target noted above would be in play, although there would be two additional impediments, both of them minor Hidden Pivots, at 134.18 and 141.56 respectively. Please note that, according to my proprietary forecasting system, when a Hidden Pivot resistance

If we get our forecast for the dollar right, nearly everything else will follow: We’ll have a clear idea of where gold and silver prices are headed, how high or low interest rates are going, and most important of all, whether we should prepare for inflation, or deflation. In this five-minute video, Rick Ackerman, editor and publisher of Rick’s Picks, looks at the dollar’s long term charts and finds compelling reasons to suggest the buck is headed much higher. If so, it would mean attempts by the central banks to stimulate the global economy are doomed to fail. Judge for yourself from the evidence presented here

A perfect storm is gathering in the shipping industry. For starters, the global recession in manufacturing has created an enormous surplus of tanker capacity. To make matters worse, it comes at a time when gigantic ships are being built to handle as many as 20,000 containers. Worst of all is that port facilities, particularly in the U.S., are set to embark on major expansions to handle the new generation of supertankers. The situation for container handlers is especially dire because even the largest U.S. ports are currently unable to facilitate unloading on a timely basis. Trucks are wasting hours and sometimes even days queuing up for payloads. How can traders and investors prepare for the likely disaster ahead? Rick Ackerman, editor of Rick’s Picks, details two option strategies you can use to profit from a shipping bust. Both employ low-cost, vertical bear put spreads that yield effective odds as high as 12-to-1 if shipping stocks should tumble before mid-September. Check out this 5-minute recording for explicit instructions.